Demonstrations South Carolina

Yielding to the pressure of protest marches and a growing national boycott, the South Carolina Senate acted Wednesday night to end the 38-year stalemate over the Confederate battle flag that flutters above the Statehouse dome. The vote in the state Capitol in Columbia came 139 years to the day after Confederate forces shelled Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor and ignited the Civil War.

NAACP leaders said Tuesday that despite a lawsuit threat they will move ahead with plans to hold protests along South Carolina highways to discourage tourists from spending money in the state. The protests, planned for rest stops and welcome centers, are part of the civil rights group's ongoing economic boycott over the state's display of the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds. South Carolina NAACP Executive Director Dwight James said he is not fazed by state Atty. Gen.

Look closely when that Confederate flag comes down from the top of the South Carolina state capitol and you'll see the hands of sports figures tugging on the rope. They didn't do it by themselves, but members of the sports community from Lou Holtz to Serena Williams helped bolster the public outcry and economic backlash that led to the South Carolina Senate's vote Wednesday night to remove the flag. Next up is a procedural vote and a full reading in the State House.

Look closely when that Confederate flag comes down from the top of the South Carolina state capitol and you'll see the hands of sports figures tugging on the rope. They didn't do it by themselves, but members of the sports community from Lou Holtz to Serena Williams helped bolster the public outcry and economic backlash that led to the South Carolina Senate's vote Wednesday night to remove the flag. Next up is a procedural vote and a full reading in the State House.

With gaping holes in his sneakers, Joseph P. Riley Jr. trudged up the state Capitol steps Thursday, hoping for the removal of an icon of the Old South. But at the end of a five-day, 120-mile protest march, he looked up to see the Confederate flag still snapping in the wind. The 57-year-old Charleston mayor set out to pressure state legislators to lower the Rebel flag, which has flown above the Capitol since 1962.

There were souls to be saved on the sweltering sidewalks of this Southern city Friday, of that sad fact of the human condition there was little debate. Everything else was up for grabs.

More than 600 people set out Sunday on a five-day, 120-mile protest march to Columbia to urge state lawmakers to move the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome. "Take it down!" chanted some marchers. "The people of South Carolina--white and African American--want the flag to come down," said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., who spearheaded the march.

Despite appeals from a conservative Christian minister, Andrew L. Smith was executed Friday in South Carolina--making him the 500th person executed in the United States since the revival of capital punishment in 1976. Smith spent 15 years on death row for killing an elderly couple in 1983. His execution was the fourth in the last month in South Carolina and in some respects is hardly an unusual case.

NAACP leaders said Tuesday that despite a lawsuit threat they will move ahead with plans to hold protests along South Carolina highways to discourage tourists from spending money in the state. The protests, planned for rest stops and welcome centers, are part of the civil rights group's ongoing economic boycott over the state's display of the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds. South Carolina NAACP Executive Director Dwight James said he is not fazed by state Atty. Gen.

Yielding to the pressure of protest marches and a growing national boycott, the South Carolina Senate acted Wednesday night to end the 38-year stalemate over the Confederate battle flag that flutters above the Statehouse dome. The vote in the state Capitol in Columbia came 139 years to the day after Confederate forces shelled Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor and ignited the Civil War.

With gaping holes in his sneakers, Joseph P. Riley Jr. trudged up the state Capitol steps Thursday, hoping for the removal of an icon of the Old South. But at the end of a five-day, 120-mile protest march, he looked up to see the Confederate flag still snapping in the wind. The 57-year-old Charleston mayor set out to pressure state legislators to lower the Rebel flag, which has flown above the Capitol since 1962.

More than 600 people set out Sunday on a five-day, 120-mile protest march to Columbia to urge state lawmakers to move the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome. "Take it down!" chanted some marchers. "The people of South Carolina--white and African American--want the flag to come down," said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., who spearheaded the march.

Despite appeals from a conservative Christian minister, Andrew L. Smith was executed Friday in South Carolina--making him the 500th person executed in the United States since the revival of capital punishment in 1976. Smith spent 15 years on death row for killing an elderly couple in 1983. His execution was the fourth in the last month in South Carolina and in some respects is hardly an unusual case.

There were souls to be saved on the sweltering sidewalks of this Southern city Friday, of that sad fact of the human condition there was little debate. Everything else was up for grabs.